A revolving loan fund is a source of money from which loans are made for multiple sustainable energy projects. Revolving funds can provide loans for projects that do not have access to other types of loans from financial institutions, or can provide loans at a below-market rate of interest (soft loans).
On-bill lending is a method of financing energy efficiency improvements that uses the utility bill as the repayment vehicle. Energy suppliers collect the repayment of a loan through energy bills. It leverages the relationship, which exists between a utility and its customer in order to facilitate access to funding for sustainable energy investments.
Bond is a debt investment in which an investor loans money to an entity (typically corporate or governmental) which borrows the funds for a defined period of time at a variable or fixed interest rate. Bonds are issued by companies, municipalities, states and sovereign governments to raise money and finance their projects and activities. Green bonds are all those instruments which are used exclusively to fund qualifying green investments. They can be made attractive via tax-exemptions.
Energy cooperatives refer to a business model where citizens jointly own and participate in renewable energy (RES) or energy efficiency (EE) projects. In energy cooperatives citizens are involved in both the decision making and financial & economical participation. All citizens are eligible to participate. After purchasing a cooperative share and becoming a member or co-owner of local RES and EE projects, members share in the profits and often are given the opportunity to buy the electricity at a fair price.
The Public Loan Facility complements the two other pillars of the Just Transition Mechanism, the Just Transition Fund (JTF) and a dedicated just transition scheme under InvestEU. It helps to address the socio-economic challenges of the transition to climate neutrality in the most affected territories as identified in the territorial Just Transition Plans.
The InvestEU Fund is a market-based and demand-driven instrument, with a strong emphasis on EU policy priorities. It supports the following 4 Policy Windows:
• Sustainable infrastructure
Financing projects in sustainable energy, digital connectivity, transport, the circular economy, water, waste, other environment infrastructure and more.
• Research, innovation and digitalisation
The Innovation Fund is one of the world’s largest funding programmes for the deployment of net-zero and innovative technologies.
The Innovation Fund is the EU fund for climate policy, with a focus on energy and industry. It aims to bring to the market solutions to decarbonise European industry and support its transition to climate neutrality while fostering its competitiveness.
Horizon Europe is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation.
It tackles climate change, helps to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and boosts the EU’s competitiveness and growth.
The programme facilitates collaboration and strengthens the impact of research and innovation in developing, supporting and implementing EU policies while tackling global challenges. It supports the creation and better diffusion of excellent knowledge and technologies.
Renewable Energy Financing Mechanism (RENEWFM)
The EU Renewable Energy Financing Mechanism (RENEWFM) supports new renewable energy projects. It encourages a greater uptake of renewable energy sources across the EU. This will help the EU to achieve its target of the renewable energy share in the final energy consumption by 2030 in a cooperative and cost-effective manner.
Objectives of the EU renewable energy financing mechanism